"He's not the same..." - McCoist claims key Liverpool player has got much worse this season

Former Scotland international Ally McCoist has claimed Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah is is not the same player he was last season.

Liverpool are off the back of a 2-1 defeat to Brighton in the FA Cup Last 16, as Jurgen Klopp saw another chance at silverware fall by the wayside.

Following their 3-2 defeat to Manchester City in the EFL Cup quarter-finals, the Champions League remains Klopp's last hope of a trophy this season, with the Premier League title seemingly out of reach.

The Reds have struggled to find their feet this campaign, with a plague of injuries hindering the squad. Meanwhile, a number of players have failed reach the heights of last season.

They sit ninth in the table, 10 points adrift of fourth placed Manchester United.

McCoist: His standards have dropped

McCoist singled out Salah after the game against Brighton, highlighting his recent dip in form.

McCoist told talkSPORT: "As good as he is, he’s not the same player. His standards have dropped. Don’t get me wrong, his standards were ridiculously high, but they have dropped.

"He doesn’t look to be producing the same quality."

Klopp admitted that the Egyptian was also suffering from playing within a make-shift attacking front three.

In the lead up to the game against Brighton, the German said: “Oh yes, of course he is suffering. It was a well-drilled machine, the front three, everything was clear what we were doing.

“Everybody suffers from that. That’s clear. It is specific, offensive play that requires a lot of work and a lot of information, and not always obvious information.

“You create a feeling about a lot of these things, about where your team-mate is and where to pass the ball without looking.

“That is not cool but we cannot expect just to be back to our best and win 5-0 and go to the next game. We have to work hard. In two or three weeks a couple more options will be available and we can mix it up."

However, the Reds boss insisted that there were bigger problems within the side.

“We start a new chapter and now we talk about Mo Salah,” added Klopp.

“If you had scored hundreds of goals in the past and now you are not scoring then that is the first thing you would think about but that is not our problem at the moment."